Elijah Price was born in Martin County, North Carolina on September 9, 1791. On December 11, 1821 he married Temperance ("Tempe") Thomas of Stantonsburg, North Carolina. They remained in North Carolina until 1830, at which time they moved to Lawrence County, Alabama. They also lived in Sumter County, where Price served as a State Representative in the Alabama Legislature. In 1841 the Price family moved to Texas, staying for a while in Polk (then Liberty) County, then later settling on a large plantation near San Augustine. Price was a Mason, an Odd Fellow, and a member of Christ Episcopal Church. He died in San Augustine on November 17, 1852, leaving his widow to continue running the plantation until her death about 1859. There were ten children in the Price family, and the plantation was sold after Tempe died. (Price, William Hall and Mackenzie, Ann Price, Price Family Record, 1976; Crocket, G. L., Two Centuries in East Texas, Dallas: Southwest Press, 1932)

Scope and Content Note

William F. Price Collection, 1837-1867 Most of the collection consists of papers of Elijah and Temperence Price, but there are also papers relating to the Blount & Price mercantile business, George Fulton Crocket and his family, and S[tephen] W[illiam] Blount & Co., all of San Augustine. Crocket and Blount, along with Travis Gustavus Broocks and Mathew Cartwright, jointly operated a steam mill near San Augustine which appears to have had facilities for sawing lumber and grinding grain. The papers include correspondence; financial records relating to cotton; personal and business bills, accounts, and receipts; and legal papers. The bills and accounts give details about consumer purchases such as clothing, fabrics, food, household items, medical expenses, school books, and music. Letterheads on the business stationery are decorated with ships, lighthouses, and covered wagons.
A genealogy including some of this line of the Price family is available in "Price Family Record" compiled by William Hall Price and Anne Price Mackenzie (1976). William F. Price was the grandson of Elijah and Tempe Price.

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This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is available for non-commercial research and education. For permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the East Texas Research Center at asketrc@sfasu.edu.